Horror Art: Shawn Conn

Shawn’s very birth was a portend of the dark path he would one day take with his art. He was born breech during a freak blizzard in early November. As his mother was bleeding to death, Shawn was being choked by his own umbilical cord. The Doctor grabbed his feet and yanked, breaking his right arm in the process. Shawn grew up at the tail end of the atomic age. Godzilla was on TV, Hammer films were on late at night and Adam West was Batman. He was heavily influenced by films, such as Romero’s Dawn of the Dead and Barker’s Hellraiser and magazines such as Famous Monsters of Filmland, Fangoria & Heavy Metal, which propelled him into horror and fantasy art.

Shawn has been a successful tattoo artist for over 20 years, specializing in dark art. In 2006 he returned to his roots as an illustrator and fine artist and has quickly gained a foothold in the horror genre, creating book covers, posters, album art, trading cards and art for horror apparel & merchandise. His clients have included, Scream: The Horror Magazine (UK), Mad Monster Magazine, Z Magazine, One Buck Horror, Harcos Labs, MRI Firearms, Lyman Products, Paranoid Android Productions, Warner Brothers and Monsterwax, among others. Shawn was also featured in the Feb 2013 issue of ImagineFX magazine.

Working both traditionally and digitally makes him a sought after illustrator, as he is in a constant state of evolving his art, unafraid to step outside of his comfort zone and take his art to new heights. Shawn has a busy schedule, but is always looking for new, exciting projects and commissions.